Dan Hinxman: A success story -- the transformation of Duke

We're sending Duke off to real life pretty soon, and he wants you all to know how grateful he is.

He is, in so many ways, Reno's son - mischievous, gregarious, talented, reformed ? human. We've seen him become a man. We've helped him become a man.

"I like that idea of being part of the community," Wolf Pack safety Michael "Duke" Williams said Monday after football practice, five days before he was to play his final game at Nevada, the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday. "The community helped me when I was going through those issues. ? There's a lot of people behind me. There was never anything negative I got back from anyone. Everyone was pulling for me."